How do different philosophical schools of thought define "truth"?

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/1ib9q4t/how_do_different_philosophical_schools_of_thought/

created by juliasct on 27/01/2025 at 14:00 UTC

9 upvotes, 2 top-level comments (showing 2)

Hi. I am analysing some survey responses which talk about accuracy/truth and I feel like there are some different underlying definitions of what truth is. Roughly speaking, I've seen: truth as "objective", "facts" (perhaps a sort of naive view of truth?); truth as "scientifically accurate" (perhaps depending on the validity of the process?); truth as a "general consensus" (perhaps of experts); and finally truth as being presented with "different perspectives".

I would like to analyse these possible underlying definitions with the help of established schools of thought which deal with these matter. Could anyone tell me a bit how different movements or specific philosophers define truth, in broad strokes? It would be particularly helpful if there any similarities with the underlying definitions I've described.

I get that defining "truth" is very abstract and difficult, so I'm mostly looking for some pointers on what to research more deeply.

Comments

Comment by AutoModerator at 27/01/2025 at 14:00 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

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Comment by drinka40tonight at 27/01/2025 at 14:28 UTC

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

There is an SEP article: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/

And an IEP article that is a bit more beginner friendly: https://iep.utm.edu/truth/

It's a bit different than some of the "underlying definitions" that you mention in your post, but that's mostly because those candidate understandings of "truth" are bad.